Song: “Free at
Last”
Artist: DC Talk
Album: Free at
Last (1992)
Track: 8
Besides the rather goofy opening, this was actually one of
my favorite tunes off of the album. It
has a very nice gospel / rock / rap blend that really represents the best DC
Talk was doing at this particular time in their career. It has always been and probably will always
be one of my favorite tracks off the record.
The Good
Honestly, this is one of the tracks on the album is pretty
much all good. There is a distinct
comparison here – slavery and freedom – and the images are placed in the proper
context. We were slaves to sin, but
Christ has set us free.
In the meantime, their approach is really well done. For example, Toby downplays the “personal
testimony” approach for a more God-centered one with the lines “If you’re
seriously curious about my past, I once was lost, but not I’m free at last.”
Again, the God-centeredness of: “Something’s got me jumping
and I think it’s the way He can take a hard man and turn him into soft
clay. Out of the darkness, the Father
has sparked this.”
They even get the ordo
salutus (the order of salvation) right when they say “The Father first
receives us, the Truth then frees us, forgiven, now I'm living like a man full
of Jesus.” Yes, this is great! Jesus tells us, “All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come
down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And
this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he
has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is why I told you that no
one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:37-39, 65). I in all seriousness encourage the reading of
this entire section to get a better understand of what is really happening
here.
This is not popular teaching (then or now – remember Jesus
drove away almost all of his followers by the end of the chapter), but it’s a
true one. Based on their other songs,
I’m not even really sure that DCT believed it, but we have a way of at least
unintentionally confessing the truth when we talk about how we were saved. Only a few Christians I have known really
talk about their salvation as something they did. Sure, they will talk about praying a prayer
at some point, but they use words just like this song does – their eyes were
opened, they were rescued, they were saved.
All passive tense. These things
were done to them, not by them.
Jesus saves his sheep, and He does not lose one of them. That is the promise to His children – our
salvation is in His hands, not our own.
This is a great comfort to me, and it should be to all of His own. Many want to make salvation something left to
us – we can choose one way or another.
There is no comfort there, because I know myself, and I would turn away
if left to myself. “Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and
seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”
The beauty of that hymn, and those lines are some of the greatest words
ever spoken outside of Scripture, is that this is what the Spirit does. He seals us in Christ, and we are His.
At the same time, they don’t let man off the hook. They are clear that we are required to
repent. “It was Hell until I fell upon
my knees and prayed” they explained. No
backing away from the Doctrine of Hell, no letting up on what is commanded of
us. This is a critical addition. Salvation is a work of God upon the heart,
but let us not think that this work does not occur in time and space. We are called to faith, and without faith, we
will not be saved. It is a myth about
Calvinism that we do not believe in evangelism or preaching repentance. This is not so. We see everywhere in Scripture where God uses
means to accomplish His purposes, and we see that faith is a result of hearing
the Word. We are commanded to heed the
Gospel call and respond in repentance and faith!
Neither Good nor Bad
At the time, a bunch of bands were doing goofy intros to
songs (like Geoff Moore’s “Evolution Redefined”), and I generally liked it
then. Now, it annoys me tremendously. They stopped being funny a long time ago. Or let me put it this way. I wish they had put this intro on a separate
track, like they did with their other interludes and funny bits. That way, I could skip it if I want to with a
click of a button.
The Bad
Okay, really the only thing I’m going to mention here is the
MLK quote. Yes, we all know the words
“Free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last” (which is also the chorus
of this tune) because of his speech, but what in the world is the audio doing
here? I ask that because of the context
of the song. The song is not about
racial oppression, but about freedom from Satan and sin. So when we insert the MLK quote into a song
about, in essence, salvation, it sounds like that’s what King is talking about
too. Which he wasn’t. I’m 99% sure that the whole reason they wrote
this song is because the speech inspired them, but the song ended up about
something else, so leaving it is confusing.
In that context, it comes across as ecumenism at best and
universalism at worst. The particular
reference to “[Roman] Catholics” being part of the choir singing this song leans
toward a denial that there are foundational errors in Rome’s gospel, while if we take
the reference to Jews to be religious Jews rather than racial Jews, we have
even more of a problem. Don’t get me
wrong! Black men, white men, Jews, and
Gentiles all who confess Christ will be saved, but those who deny him will not.
The quote, in short, has no purpose here, is out of place,
and actually confuses the overall good message of the song. I would normally put a misplaced quote into
the “Neither Good nor Bad” category, but in this case, it is a detriment to the
song.
Overall
Besides that, the song is solid throughout. Good tune, good message; we should approve of
this sort of approach.
